Endgame: The Calling (2012)

I can see from the comments on Goodreads that this book draws some controversy, but I quite enjoyed it. It's a solid 3.5 stars from me. The author's name didn't really ring a bell for me, so I had no preconceptions going into it, and the comparisons to The Hunger Games are really way off base. Yes, there are points of superficial similarity in the premise, but the story is entirely different. *Entirely.* It's a fast-paced and quite gripping story in which you never know which characters will live or die, and the idea behind the plot is intriguing. It made me think back to books like Chariots of the Gods, which I read in my teens, and which probably shaped a lot of my ideas about life in the universe (take what you will from that). I listened to the audiobook and it was excellently narrated by Sunil Malhotra, who managed to give a diverse cast of characters very recognizable voices.

My only quibble was that some parts (long strings of words and/or numbers which the characters must decode) did not translate well for audio. Not sure how you'd fix that problem, but it serves to pull the reader out of the story, which you never want to do.

At any rate, I'd read the next one. ( )

I know not many readers are going to fall over their feet to buy a book with James Frey's name on the cover, and I know the synopsis of this book sounds like a rip-off of The Hunger Games. I also know that regardless of all these things, readers are interested in what Endgame is. Now, first off, no Endgame: The Calling is not a rip-off - even though the synopsis might give you that impression. In fact, the story is quite compelling and surprisingly fast-paced, well-balanced, and filled with action. Secondly, I have to admit that I really liked the book and that I can't wait to see where this tale takes us in the sequel. Thirdly, I might not like the guy (James Frey), but writers can learn a thing or two with his publicity tactics. I mean, there's not such thing as bad publicity, right?

Anyway, so the story is simple - well, not that simple, but I'm simplifying it. There are 12 ancient bloodlines, scattered across the world. The players are always between the ages of 13 and 20. They play for the world (or at least, for their people). There can be only one winner, which means, 11 bloodlines and their people (which runs into the billions, I suppose) will die. In other words, this is basically the gods' - a.k.a. ancient aliens - Superbowl. Whoohoo!



We get to know quite a few of the players who survives this preliminary round in Endgame, and most of them are worthy of being killed off, in my opinion. However, you keep wondering who'll survive in the long run, because there are a few characters that really crawls into your heart ... Of course, we won't find out any time soon, but it keeps you wondering and wanting (it's a brilliant writing tactic, damn it). Apart from that though, there are a few players who gets killed before the actual game even begins, which also makes you wonder: "What now?"

Endgame: The Calling isn't like The Hunger Games, so chill out. It's an epic, yes, but the stakes are much higher and it's much more sci-fi than our beloved Katniss Everdeen's tale. I mean, we meet actual aliens in this story, man! This is end of the world stuff!

Seriously, it's a good book and worth a read if you're into these kinds of stories.

Review originally posted on:
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This book was so good! It IS like the hunger games, but amped waaaay up to a global/universal scale. The characters are all complete, deadly bad asses who must compete against each other to win survival for their lines and possession of 3 keys. And many others will die during the process.

The puzzles are insane and, though the numbers began to irk me quite a bit, had me intrigued. The no rules (besides the order that the keys must be found in) thing of Endgame makes for an absolutely brutal blood bath.

The characters all possess a variety of traits, ranging from sociopathic to kind hearted...well as kind as Endgame allows them to be. I particularly enjoyed Chiyoko's and Shari's sections since they (along with Alice) seemed more level-headed than the others. The youngest Player and the guy he teamed up with are the craziest and worry me quite a bit.

The ending was such a rush of good story telling and the deaths that occurred were moving. The absolute final scene in the book holds such huge promises for an even more brutal sequel. ( )

This book was so good! It IS like the hunger games, but amped waaaay up to a global/universal scale. The characters are all complete, deadly bad asses who must compete against each other to win survival for their lines and possession of 3 keys. And many others will die during the process.

The puzzles are insane and, though the numbers began to irk me quite a bit, had me intrigued. The no rules (besides the order that the keys must be found in) thing of Endgame makes for an absolutely brutal blood bath.

The characters all possess a variety of traits, ranging from sociopathic to kind hearted...well as kind as Endgame allows them to be. I particularly enjoyed Chiyoko's and Shari's sections since they (along with Alice) seemed more level-headed than the others. The youngest Player and the guy he teamed up with are the craziest and worry me quite a bit.

The ending was such a rush of good story telling and the deaths that occurred were moving. The absolute final scene in the book holds such huge promises for an even more brutal sequel. ( )

Read this review and more on my blog October Tune!

When I first heard about Endgame: The Calling I was curious. A book with an actual scavenger hunt hidden inside? That should be awesome right? Well, no. Because when I started reading the book, I was annoyed right from the start. And even though I told myself I would read at least half of a book before deciding to DNF it, I didn't even make it to 25% with this one.

First of all, the main thing that annoyed me was the fact that there were SO. MANY. POV'S. There were twelve players, and though I didn't get to read all of their POV's, reading from five or six of them was annoying already. The authors did have a favourite one, American sweetheart Sarah. Obviously. A whole book full of diverse characters from all over the world, and they choose the white American girl. (Honestly, I don't care what skincolour the characters have (nor do I care about their sexual orientation). I just want good characters who do awesome things, and if they are black or white or brown doesn't matter to me, as long as they are written well). But in this book, none of the characters were written well.

Then there was the fact that everything was described in detail. Like, a character would be wearing a suit, just a simple suit, but the author would describe in detail what it was made of, what colour it was, what the ring on his left hand looked like and what colour the stones were on that ring. Yes, I do like it when things are described, but sometimes it just took so long for a character to be described that I just gave up and skimmed the whole thing. It was very frustrating in this book. (Just like it was frustrating in Lord of the Rings, but then again LOTR had an interesting story to tell, and I didn't really feel like that with Endgame).

And just the way the book was written was annoying to me too. Such short sentences, so many periods, and there was one character who had weird tics and blinkblink the author blinkblinkshiver the the author shiverblinkshiver would write shivershiver all the sentences blinkblinkblink like this and blinkblinkblink sometimes shivershiver sometimes he would blinkshiverblinkshiver repeat words blinkblinkshiver. I just got SO EFFING FRUSTRATED BECAUSE OF THAT. And ever time the authors started a new sentence that involved the character doing or thinking something, it would be like: "Sarah sat down. Sarah loved sitting down. Sarah thought she could probably sit down for the rest of the day. Sarah this. Sarah that. Sarah why do all sentences start with your name?" You know. It was just annoying, I know it's Sarah who does all those things, seriously what's wrong with using 'she/he' sometimes.

A lot of people are already tired of hearing this, but I've got to say it: Yes it did remind me of the Hunger Games a bit. But it was also different; because of course in THG the tributes aren't allowed to leave the arena, and Endgame happened all over the world. There were clues the Players had to solve instead of just mindlessly killing each other (though that did happen). But yeah, I just thought of the Hunger Games while reading it. Sorry for those who are done with everyone comparing the two books, but hey it's just my opinion.

In the end, I disliked Endgame a lot. So much even that I gave it just one star, which I've only done to two books I've read so far (City of Glass and one of the Grimm Diary Prequel novella's). So congratulations Endgame, on becoming the third one-star rated book on my Read shelf! Now get out of my face.

My opinion on this book in one gif:


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